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82. Mr. Deveaux Kevin, on his part, underscored the findings and recommendations for moving thework on parliamentary support in the area of crisis prevention and recovery forward at the nationallevel: The main challenges of national parliaments today concern:The weak position of parliamentary institutions in relation to the executive, armed groups andother non-state actors especially in post-conflict situations;The lack of independency;The limited capacities of parliamentarians and their staff (human resources, funds andinfrastructures);The tendency for parliamentarians to be more concerned with their party’s interest or personalinterest rather than with the nation’s interest.83. Mr. Deveaux recognized the general consensus on the fact that the presence of strong andlegitimate parliaments is crucial for a greater role in crisis prevention and recovery. Agreedrecommendations included: Strengthening the role of parliamentarians in the area of crisis prevention and recovery bybuilding their mediation and communication capacities to intervene positively in, for exampleland disputes, border issues; Joint investigation missions by parliamentarians, government representatives and civil societyorganizations were highlighted as a way forward; Parliamentary outreach to citizens and civil society was also highlighted as an importantlegitimacy strategy to work on crisis prevention and recovery; The question of finding the right balance between strong political parties and weak parties alsocame up during the discussions (political parties which are too strong can undermine the workof a parliament as an institution); Mainstreaming a conflict-sensitive approach to law drafting and review of existing laws was alsoidentified as an opportunity for parliamentarians to play a greater role in crisis prevention andrecovery.84. Mr. Deveaux finally thanked all parliamentarians, practitioners and representatives of international /regional organizations and civil society organizations for their participation, dynamism andcontribution to the high level of debates which prevailed throughout the regional seminar. Heexpressed special thanks to: Honorable Michael Aaron Oquaye, Second Deputy Speaker of theParliament of Ghana; Honorable Mohamed Traore, Secretary General of the Parliament of Mali;and His Excellency M. Dirk Verheyen, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to Côte d’Ivoire andthe Belgium Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their financial support and commitment to UNDP’sproject. Mr. Deveaux ended his address by reiterating UNDP’s commitment to strengtheningcollaborations and creating new forms of partnerships in order to reinforce and improveparliamentary support activities in the region, and urged parliamentarians to make the necessaryfollow-up on the implementation and application of the various recommendations made duringthe seminar at the level of their respective parliaments.38
CONCLUSION85. Strengthening parliaments as a whole institution is a major crisis prevention tool. Parliament’sbasic oversight, legislative and representative role in crisis prevention and recovery issues reducestensions or identifies peaceful means of resolving them and prevents the outbreak, escalation,spread or recurrence of violence through, for example: The creation of dedicated peace parliamentary committees (Ghana); legislating on gender-based violence in application of UN Resolutions 1325 and 1820 (SierraLeone, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire); Oversight of the implementation of peace-building or prevention and reconciliation strategies(Togo, Guinea-Bissau); Parliamentary mediating with rebellions at the local level (Mali), etc.86. On the basis of the recommendations of the regional seminar, UNDP will: Share the findings with its country offices in the region to better integrate this conflict-sensitiveapproach in existing parliamentary development projects; UNDP will continue engaging parliamentarians and partners at the regional level to consolidatethe network of parliamentarians and identify and pilot south-south solutions andrecommendations.All knowledge and research information is available on-line under the dedicated West Africapage on AGORA (http://www.agora-parl.org/node/2713) and parliamentarians are invited tocontinue the discussions and experiences sharing on the trusted area of AGORA.39
Page 1: Regional SeminarREPORTTowards Stren
Page 4 and 5: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYOn the basis of UN
Page 6 and 7: INTRODUCTION1. On the basis of UNDP
Page 8 and 9: OPENING CEREMONY9. The opening cere
Page 10 and 11: Building inclusive, responsive and
Page 12 and 13: Parliaments should adopt a region-w
Page 14 and 15: SESSION 2: Parliamentary Performanc
Page 17 and 18: SESSION 3: Parliaments as Peace-Bui
Page 19 and 20: 36. General reflections on the foll
Page 21 and 22: Sierra Leone for example, a reprodu
Page 23 and 24: a) Effective parliamentary oversigh
Page 25 and 26: 51. Mr. Asoba identified 4 major ch
Page 27 and 28: consultations and campaigns for pea
Page 29 and 30: From left to right: Dr. Rasheed Dra
Page 31 and 32: Strengthening the mechanisms of reg
Page 33 and 34: 3) Successful interventions in the
Page 35 and 36: 19) Encourage parliamentarians to e
Page 37: SESSION 9: Closing session: partner
Page 41 and 42: 11:00 - 11:15 Coffee breakSession 3
Page 43 and 44: Annex 2: Participants ListMembers o
Page 45 and 46: International and Regional Organiza

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